Half Term Break Part 1

Last week was our Half Term Break, which consisted of an extra long week-end (5 days). Always inspired to travel, my friend Nicolai and I rented a car (only have to be 18 in Bosnia which was a pleasant surprise) and decided to see how far we could get. Here is a look at half of our itinerary for our trip, during which we were blessed with the presence of some friends.

1. Drive to Zadar and drop of Hilary (USA) and Shaked (Israel).

2. Continue on to Venice and drop of Leah (USA) and Isa (Netherlands)

3. Sleep 3 hours.

4. Next day; drive all the way to Nice, France!

5. Skip the expensive, but delicious French food and eat cheap! a.k.a. Chinese Food!!

Half Term Break Part 2 still to come!

Helping the Undercat

Two days ago, on a windy and chilly night comparable to a January evening in Chicago, just as I walked out of the basement of my residence after dinner, Tina from Bosnia just returned from a long walk home from school. In her arms, she carried the smallest, cutest cat that I had ever seen. It could not have been more than a week old but it had no mother and Tina had rescued it off of the street. It was emaciated to the point where it could barely meow at a barely audible high pitch. We snuck it upstairs to Tina's room, put her right next to a heater, and gave her some warm milk. It took a while for her to calm down in the new environment, but afterwards she was quite content. We kept her for a few days, but keeping a secret like this in a house of that preys on a good piece of gossip means you can't keep something quiet for long. Naturally, the house mom found out and we had to put her back on the street. Begging and pleading were useless and no one we knew (and there were many of us searching) were willing to take the kitten in.

In some ways, I feel like this little anecdote parallels the plight of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fresh from the wombs of a post-war society, this small country is fighting against all odds of this world. We, the outside international aid programs and international governments, can try to give this place the means to live a plentiful life, but somehow that aid has not weathered the storm. Bosnia has gotten its share of aid, but its really inside the country that will decide what its future will be, just as we must hope this little kitten will find strength to survive, more than ever now as winter approaches. Maybe a difference is that we students didn't willingly abandon the kitty whereas the international community absentmindedly pushed the priorities of this country aside. Still, we can only hope and pray that the leaders of this country can find common ground to move forward and fulfill the huge potential that this country holds.

Biking!

This morning, a couple of us brave souls set our alarm clocks and rose at the early hour of 5:30am. Traveling by bike, Hilary (my first year from the US), Nicolai (2nd year from Denmark), Schirin (first year from Austria), and I scaled one of the mountains surrounding Mostar to reach the "Cross" that looms a little too overtly over Mostar. We arrived perfectly in time to enjoy a beautiful mountain sunrise as it steeped in its splendor over the waking city whose heart barely beats. (A little William Wordsworth from English class)

Wiping away the sleepy sand from my eyes was tough, but it was completely worth it, especially for the way down. (My velocity on non-motorized vehicles may have reached a new personal record.)

Group photo at the base of the cross. From left to right, Hilary, Nicolai, and Schirin.

The "Cross" itself. I'm pretty sure it stands almost 10 stories high, so its quite visible to the citizens of Mostar. My personal opinion, not meant to offend fellow Christians, is that it is exuberantly obnoxious. The only reason for someone to make a cross that big is to make a statement, in this case a clear "bigger = better". When you get on the road that takes you to the cross, you must pass fourteen small crosses until you reach the final one. Sure, it may be nice to know you're on the right path, but to me, it's a bitter reminder of a war based on religious grounds. From the very spot that the Cross occupies, tanks and bunkers rained bombs and bullets down upon the city of Mostar for over 3 years. No matter what religion you are, no where in any of them does it encourage the practice of violence. It just goes to show how mankind continues, as it has over the countless centuries, to abuse the power and good messages that religion has. Maybe John Lennon was right:

Imagine no religion

I wonder if you can

Nothing to kill or die for

A brotherhood of man

Bajram Serif Mubarek Olsun (Happy Bajram)

Today is the Muslim holiday of Bajram, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Participating Muslims must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach Muslims patience, modesty and spirituality. Ramadan is a time for Muslims to fast for the sake of God, or Allah, and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramadan, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. It falls on the 9th month of the Islamic Calendar. It moves up 10 days each year because it is correlated with the cycle of the moon.

Many of the Muslims at our own school have been fasting for the past month, which lasts almost 30 days, from 4 am to about 7:15 pm. Each morning, my two roommates, Amer and Mustafa, wake up at 3:30 am and eat the morning meal, called Suhur (soo-hoor). Then they wake up again at 7:30, go to school all day, maybe participate in our CAS activities, including Rugby and Football, and then come home. Finally, once the sun has set, they open the faucets and drink, followed by eating and then rest. Fasting, as I found out on the day that I fasted myself, can be extremely exhausting and very difficult to do. Yet at the end of it all, I felt as if I had really accomplished something and gained a whole new appreciation for my everyday blessings, such as water and bread.

Today, to celebrate Bajram, there was a special prayer at each Mosque. I wanted to experience it with my two best friends, so we left at 6:30 am and attended the prayer across town (since our dorm is on the Croatian/Catholic part of town). There was a surprisingly large amount of people there at 6:45am, and the prayer lasted until about 7:40am. Though their style of praying is different, I found it very interesting and respectful. Praying involves going to your knees and kissing the ground and then returning to a standing position. This really symbolizes how Muslims really give themselves up to the power of God, something I don't feel like I have done very well as a Christian.

A New(ish) Beginning

Dear Readers,

As you can see, I have made some changes to the layout of the blog to parellel my new year at UWCiM. I hope you enjoy the fresh new outlook of my blog as I continue to refresh and edit my own outlook of life through my experiences here in the beautiful town of Mostar!

In this whirlwind of these first two weeks, I've entered the chaotic lifestyle that UWC in Mostar is. After finishing up with a great introduction week for our First Years, classes began with a fury for us, as if there had been no summer break at all. Yet, I took pleasure in the fact that I am enriching myself intellectually through one of the best programs worldwide, which is something that I am utterly grateful for. I just have to continually emphasize the fact that this has been and continues to be the most amazing experience of my life, and I want to thank my parents and all the support from back home because you are the reason I am here.

In the last post, you saw pictures from our excursion to Kravica (the waterfalls) which are about an hour from Mostar. Below is a short video of the funnest part about that, which was swinging rope!

My roommate Amer, from Montenegro, also brought a mini blow-up pool to counteract the heat of Mostar. The good news (as seen below) is that it's up and running. The bad news... it's cold! Even though Mostar suffered one of the hottest summer's on record, with over 110 degree heat, it's struggling to break 75 these days, which doesn't make for great swimming weather. Being the Chicagoan that I am, I'm still busting out in shorts and t-shirts because I want to enjoy the "warm" weather, but the locals look at me sideways, since they're all dressed in long pants and jackets. I'm still working on how to blend in...

This is taken on our balcony! From left, we have Nicolai from Denmark, Srdjan from Bosnia, Amer (my roommate) from Montenegro, Mustafa (above, also my roommate) from Iraq, Simone (below) from Italy, and one of our first years, Anita, from London.

And as they say in local... Do vidjenja, moje prijatelje! (See you soon, my friends)

Back to Bosnia!

Well, it's been well over 4 months, maybe 5, since I've last posted here on my blog, however, I have safely and happily made it back to the land of cevapi, random coffees, bridge jumping, and apparently gossip (or so the locals say). My trip here was tough (4 flights and 2 buses), but my baggage came (thank god) and I didn't take any wrong turns!

Coming back has held the sadness of missing some old friends and the joy of meeting news ones, falling back into older habits and discovering some new ones, and recongizing a less modern world as a world that holds so much for the future. With the sad loss of our "2nd years" who are now spread out around the world again comes the joyous addition of our own "1st years", the new generation that we worked so hard to bring in after financial problems left us scrabbling. And maybe it's a biased opinion, but I feel as if I'm a proud new parent of so many new children. I feel so much responsibility to seeing our firsties through their year, helping and guiding them, and letting them exert an amazing influence over the college. Already, after under a week, I can see so much potential in the eyes and actions of these new forerunners of their generation.

The main highlight of this first week has been a trip to Kravica, where there is an amazing water fall. We climbed, we swam, and we played in front of an amazing backdrop.

Please check back for more updates throughout the year! Looking forward to hearing from you.

Spring Cleaning

No matter how groundbreaking or earth shattering it may sound, Andy actually enjoyed cleaning out his room today. It could be owed to the fact that it's about 80 degrees outside and I feel like walking around in my bathing suit, maybe even my birthday suit... just kidding. And secondly, Dordije and I rearranged our room to look much nicer, much cleaner, and a lot more spacious. It's like going from a cramped, rented out attic to the Ritz hotel! Okay, not quite, but still. Mom, I can officially admit that I enjoyed something with the word "clean" in it. : ) Love, yours truly.

On a more depressing note, this week ranks pretty much at the top of my sleeping chart as the lowest. Between the suffocation of work, sports, v-show organizing, and just life in general, I feel like, to quote Bilbo, "butter spread over too much bread". It's just hard to get work done and stuff when you are all of the sudden pulled into something else, tempted by another offer, and you just want to bang your head against a wall. Now of course, there's a silver lining to every problem, in this case being that our "Spring Break" starts in 5 days. One of my best friends Amer has invited me to his house for the 12 day break in Montenegro, so I can not wait for that. Also, this week is only 4 days long, one of which will be spent traveling to different schools in Herzegovina, advertising for applicants to UWC, so if I survive this, I can survive anything. Speaking of which, some final numbers have come out about our school. It looks like there will be 30 students from Bosnia in the next generation, which means that there will be 30 internationals as well, though that number could increase due to other factors, mainly money. And what's more? We have a verbal promise from the president of the US UWC committee to send three Americans here next year!!!!! Woooo!!! Me and Leah are so excited to be parents!!!!! Well... you know what I mean.

Continuing the goods news, Wednesday was the Semifinals and Finals for the high school volleyball competetion in Mostar. And yes, we won!! It was absolutely amazing. I mean, we're a bunch of internationals, most of whom have never played competitive volleyball, who practice in a gym half the size of a regular volleyball court, but still managed to pull it off. It wasn't easy. In fact, the finals were against the Croatian school who share the Gimnazija with us. We won the first set pretty comfortably, but they eeked by in the 2nd set, 26-24. It came down to the final set to 15, and we barely won it in the end, trading points until we pulled it out, 18-16. It was an amazing feeling. And surprisingly, they haven't kicked us out of the Gimnazija yet... : )

All the best from Bosnia,
Andy